Democratization Liliana Palihovici, the Deputy Speaker of the Parliament of Moldova, addresses a roundtable discussion on increasing the participation of women in political parties as Ambassador Jennifer Brush (l), the Head of the OSCE Mission to Moldova, and Marcin Walecki (r), the Chief of ODIHR’s Democratic Governance and Gender Unit, listen, Chisinau, 5 September 2012. (OSCE/Ecaterina Leuca ˘) of Young Leaders in various cities throughout the country. ODIHR continued to raise awareness about women’s political representation and support women’s political networking through the organization of high-level training events in OSCE participating States. The Office organized the “Roundtable on Women’s Participation in Ukraine 2012 Parliamentary Elections”, in co-operation with the National Democratic Institute, the Canadian International Development Agency and the Equal Opportunities Caucus of the Parliament of Ukraine. Held on 31 May 2012 in Kyiv, participants discussed strategies to strengthen the role of women in the Ukraine 2012 Elections. From 21 to 23 June in Baku, ODIHR organized a workshop on women’s political participation, in co-operation with the OSCE Office in Baku, resulting in increased awareness of women’s potential leadership roles in political parties in Azerbaijan. In co-operation with the OSCE Office in Yerevan, ODIHR organized a roundtable with former women participants of ODIHR training on women’s political participation on 25 and 26 June in Yerevan. The event provided ODHIR with feedback on the impact of its capacity-building activities and allowed participants to discuss their experiences during the last electoral campaign. On 19 and 20 December in Tbilisi, ODIHR contributed to the workshop “Women in Politics” organized by the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy, in Georgia where ODIHR experts provided intensive training on women’s participation in politics to representatives of nine political parties. In 2012, ODIHR also continued its history of facilitating networking among women representatives from government and civil society on the margins of human dimension events. Women Power Breakfasts were organized during the Human Dimension Seminar from 14 to 16 May and of the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting from 24 September to 5 October, both in Warsaw. Strengthening National Mechanisms for the Advancement of Women National mechanisms for the advancement of women serve to protect women’s rights and to ensure that gender equality commitments are implemented in OSCE participating States. Independent national human rights institutions (NHRIs) play a very important role, both in promoting public awareness and understanding of women’s rights and in protecting these rights. ODIHR continued to implement its National Human Rights Institutions and Gender Equality ODIHR Annual Report 2012 33